PUBLIC LIBRARIES:Digital access for the masses …

Diana Edmonds

Head of Libraries

GLL

25 June 2015

A bit about GLL …• Charitable social enterprise• Leisure specialists• 22 years old• Over 6000 staff and 120 ‘partnerships’• Libraries Division established in 2011• Currently managing 23 public libraries in the

Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Wandsworth

Welcome to Woolwich Library

Woolwich is the busiest library in London ..

• Last year there were 1,097,641 visitors • And this year, we have opened on Sundays,

too – and have around 100,000 visitors every month …

Woolwich has a lot to offer...• A space to read

Buildings

• A space to study in groups

Buildings

• A space to sing

Buildings

• A space to just be…

Buildings• A space and the facilities to use PCs and to

access the Internet

• There are 76 PCs and 5 Macs• And at 9.30am on a Monday morning, all of

them are in use …

Woolwich has lots of PCs

• Use levels currently running at 12,000 hours per month

• Has increased by 30% from 2012 to 2015

And they are used throughout the day …

Some bring their own …

But we provide

the plugs …

• Woolwich Library has 5,500 hours each month on average of wireless use

• Compared with 12,000 hours of People’s Network (fixed PC use)

Wireless Use …

The Print Offer

• As well as IT, we offer great printing• High quality copy• Printed from People’s Network PCs • From wireless devices • And from home

• We provide a variety of classes to help people use IT

• And Mr Gadget sessions for customers with new gadgets

• And ad hoc support as and when required• And support from other customers ...

And some come to learn how to use IT

• So library staff support customers to access the Job Centre, to register their children for school, to register with a doctor and so on …

National government, local authorities, retailers all want customers to communicate with them online ..

• ‘You and your partner are two of the kindest and warm hearted persons I have met in the last three Months. May Blessings good health and happyness be with you both for the rest of your lives. You  do not understand how happy you both have me feel to be able to type this note this afternoon’.

Does IT bring happiness?

• This paper is banging the drum for the public library

• Which is the place which provides the lifeline of digital access to so many

Drum roll to finish …